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By Lisa Majors-Duff
If all goes according to plan - and there's still plenty left
to do - a third regional institute of higher learning could be
made available to area residents by fall 2005.
That's when the committee working to establish a branch campus
of the Institute of American Indian Art, with its headquarters
in Santa Fe, N.M., hopes to begin enrolling students in the first
tribal college east of the Mississippi and located on the Cherokee
Indian Reservation.
"This is not a new idea," said committee member and
Cherokee High School art teacher James Smith. "It's been
hashed around for 20 years, but all past attempts have failed
for various political and financial reasons."
Smith and other committee members say they believe the time is
finally right for such an endeavor, and Cherokee Tribal Council
members agreed when they approved funding for a feasibility study.
"The idea for the branch campus has widespread support,"
said Smith, himself a CHS and IAIA alumnus. In addition to funding
support from tribal council, Smith cited support ranging from
the business community to both Southwestern Community College
and Western Carolina University, the Jackson County and North
Carolina arts councils, the Museum of Cherokee Indians and the
Qualla Arts and Crafts Co-op.
In addition to addressing the higher education needs of local
artists - not just local Indian artists, Smith says, but Appalachian
crafters, as well - a Cherokee IAIA branch campus makes sense
considering the fact that a market for such art is waiting to
be tapped in the Eastern United States.
"It doesn't make sense that there can't be a market here,"
said Smith, who pointed out that the majority of the country's
population is located in the East.
While committee members and many others have been exhaustively
working toward the establishment of a college campus in Cherokee,
the reality of its conception and birth hit home, Smith said,
when tribal council members purchased the Boundary Tree property
and gave the committee the first right of refusal for its use.
"This property is well-suited for what we want to do,"
said Smith, who pointed out the potential, with minor renovations,
of hotel rooms to become dorm rooms and other housing, a kitchen
and dining room already on site, and ample studio space.
As far as what it takes to run a college, Smith said the committee
"saw no reason to re-invent the wheel." By bringing
an IAIA branch campus to Cherokee, the backing and knowledge of
those associated with a 40-year-old accredited college would follow,
he said.
IAIA was established in 1962 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs initially
as a high school. In 1975 the institute became a two-year college
offering associate degrees. Five areas of study are now available:
creative writing, general education, three-dimensional art, two-dimensional
art and museum studies.
"As the first Indian educational institution to be premised
on the value of the cultural heritage of America's native peoples,
self-identity and individual expression were encouraged,"
the school's Web site says, "and the contemporary arts were
taught as a vehicle for that expression."
Some 3,500 students from most of the 557 federally-recognized
tribes in the United States, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee,
have been served by IAIA, where cultural values continue to be
the foundation for learning and personal development.
"IAIA has created a living legacy of artistic expression,
built on traditional cultures but reflective of contemporary native
life," the Web site says. "Because of IAIA's influence,
a flood of art now pours out from Indian artists all over America,
enriching Indian and mainstream cultures, both aesthetically and
economically."
The Cherokee IAIA branch campus feasibility study, which committee
members hope to complete anywhere from six months to a year from
now, will include details of everything it takes to run a college
and educate students. Much of this information - including number
of faculty, number of students, renovation of Boundary Tree, curriculum
offerings, books, meal plans, housing, administration needs, marketing
goals - has been collected. Putting it all together for tribal
council's final approval is the next step, said Smith.
Smith, who counsels his most gifted students to consider IAIA
after high school, acknowledges that the barriers Eastern Band
students often encounter are often too difficult to clear.
"While I think its good for them to travel and see the world,
the retention rate is not good because of the distance,"
he said. Of the three students he's seen enroll in IAIA in the
past three years, only one has graduated, he said.
In addition to keeping students closer to home, an IAIA branch
campus in Cherokee would allow for closer cooperation with the
Museum of Cherokee Indians, which could provide curriculum opportunities;
the Qualla Arts and Crafts Co-op, which could provide marketing
opportunities; and Western Carolina University and other four-year
institutions, which could provide an additional two years of arts
education, Smith said.
"This has the potential to be an incredible thing for tribal
students and the arts community in general," said Smith.
"I don't think we can afford to fail."
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